Programming Not For Everyone?

As a follow-up to my last blog post, I came across a dissenting opinion on the programming push.  In addition to the technology and Hollywood elite lending their voices to this topic, evidently politicians got in on it as well.  In an unusual show of bipartisanship, both President Obama (Democrat) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican) released statements demonstrating their support for the idea that everyone should learn how to code.  With even more heavyweights backing this concept, it is hard to imagine any opposition to the idea of programming skills for all.  An interesting voice of dissention comes from Jeff Atwood, a computer programmer of all things (NPR, 2014).  Atwood began creating computer games in the 80’s at the impressive age of 12.  He compares the recent push for programming education to wanting everyone to become auto mechanics.  Should every driver possess a basic knowledge of their automobile?  Absolutely.  Does everyone need to rebuild an engine?  Probably not. 

If I understand Atwood’s opposition it’s that like any difficult or involved proficiency, programming is a perishable skill.  We already require students to learn a plethora of topics in school from reading and writing to increasingly progressive fields of math.  Like working on your car, everyone should have a basic understanding of computing, but perhaps not everyone needs to learn how to code.  Atwood does acknowledge that should a student demonstrate an interest for this arena, more and more resources are developed every day to help further one’s coding skills.  Combining these two viewpoints, I would argue that every student should be exposed to the basics of programming at an early age.  Much like language and musical abilities, I would venture a guess that developing a coding aptitude is easier at a younger age.  To further illustrate this point I recently heard about a 5 year old who managed to hack into his Dad’s Xbox Live account (Seppala, 2014).  Barely older than a toddler, the kid discovered a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft’s gaming platform.

Hacking at 5, programming at 12…I’m feeling old.

References

NPR Staff. (2014). Computers are the future, but does everyone need to code? NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/01/25/266162832/computers-are-the-future-but-does-everyone-need-to-code

Seppala, T. J. (2014). Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad's Xbox Live account. Engadget. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/04/xbox-live-five-year-old-hacker/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full